


Warrior Child

by afterandalasia



Category: Mulan (1998)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ancient China, BAMF Mulan, Canon Era, Community: disney_kink, F/M, Hun Mulan, Khan Mulan, Military, Mongolia, Pre-Relationship, Protagonist Shan Yu, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-20
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2018-01-20 03:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1494616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A view from the far side of the Great Wall. Shan Yu does not expect to find a woman among the men whom he calls to arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warrior Child

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kinkmistress](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=kinkmistress).



> From the [prompt](http://disney-kink.livejournal.com/7507.html?thread=4318803#t6308179) on the Disney Kink Meme Holiday Post.

He calls for one man from each family in the village. His people are warriors, horsemen; there is more excitement than anger when the word goes out. From some families multiple sons come, with or without their fathers, with pride in their eyes and their horses' reins in their hands. For too long have they looked at the fat, gloating Kingdom to the South, China thinking that it sits happy and safe behind its wall, and envied it.  
  
There is one voice among the glee that rises in anger. The perpetrator is dragged to his tent: a young woman, jaw set and eyes flashing.  
  
"You will not take my father!" she says. "He has done his fighting for you."  
  
His men are holding one of her arms each, but she struggles valiantly against them. Shan-Yu regards her mildly. The women of this land are no wilting flowers either, not like the pretty painted things that China to the south seems to like.  
  
"China will not defeat itself, little one," he replies, a hint of a purr in his voice. "I need men. And if your father is good enough a warrior to have come back once, he will do so again."  
  
"He is old!" she cries, not an insult but a statement. "He was lamed defending you before. He could not fight again."  
  
"Then send one of your brothers," he says, starting to turn away with a wave of his hand. "A cousin, an uncle. Find another."  
  
"There are no others." Her voice goes cold, level, and he turns back with a curious twitch of his brow. She has fallen still in the men's grasps, hair hanging over her face, fire in her eyes. She is nothing more than a farming girl, he is quite sure, able to ride and to wield a scythe but not having held a sword in her life. "I have no brothers, no uncles. If you will not take my father, you must take me instead."  
  
His men laugh, but he can see the fire in her eyes. "Very well," he says. "Cut your hair, bear your father's sword. Prove yourself alongside my men."  
  
A wave of his hand, and the men release her. She shakes them off haughtily, and glares at each in turn with a venom he would be quite worthy of himself. Shan-Yu folds his mighty arms across his chest, and she turns her gaze on him for a moment longer, actually meeting his eyes. A rarity these days. Then, just before she can turn to go, he adds:  
  
"What is your name?"  
  
"Mulan." She replies with a haughty tilt of her chin. "Fa Mulan."  
  
He smiles like a predator. "Then welcome to my army, Fa Mulan."  
  
  
  
  
  
He keeps a particular eye on her as she learns to fight. With her hair cut short and tied in a bun, her chest bound (or so he presumes, though occasionally he amuses himself with thinking of her face should he ask) and wearing the same rough clothes as the others, the men do not seem to notice that there is a woman in their midst. They are too busy with swords and spears and bows in any case. At first she struggles, and once or twice he makes sure that he passes close by her as she trains, close enough for her to see the smirk on his face.  
  
It always makes her redouble her efforts.  
  
After a while she becomes... competent. Slips into obscurity with the others. Shan Yu thinks that his interest in the girl might be over, until he hears one day of an accident within the camp. It does to care for his men, and he follows the sounds of hubbub and worry, and finds streaks of blood on the snow and a man with blood spurting from his arm as others try in vain to stop the bleeding. Standing a short way off, sword in hand, blood on her face over her impassive expression, is Fa Mulan.  
  
"He did not believe that I could fight," she says, by way of explanation, when he asks her what has happened.  
  
Despite himself, Shan Yu finds himself smiling. "I'm sure he has learnt," he replies.  
  
She snorts. "Not if he is dead."  
  
She sheathes the sword and leaves, wiping blood from her forehead with the back of her arm as she does so. He wonders whether she had noticed that he had stopped watching so closely, and that thought too makes him smile.

 

 

"Ride beside me," he says, when they prepare their horses to ride south. Mulan looks at him warily, but when he drops to his knees and cups his hands to help her mount her own horse, she accedes to him. Both know full well that she can mount by herself, or that he could have lifted her on like a feather. But neither would accept such an action.  
  


 

  
  
It is Fa Mulan's keen eyes that spot the first group of Chinese soldiers that cross their path, still north of the Wall then. The others are still looking for the sight that has bought their leader's falcon plummeting to ground, but she sees distant specks of movement in a flash.  
  
The soldiers are killed, but not before they give up the information that Shan Yu wants. That night the camp celebrates, with roast meat and mead and drumming that echoes across the mountainsides. When Shan Yu does not see one soldier among the others, he slips from their midst, until he finds the lonely figure standing at a precipiece edge.  
  
He crosses the crunching snow to stand beside her, both looking down over the land below. In the distance, China's Wall is visible, a grey snake across the black landscape.  
  
"Have I proven myself among your men, yet, Shan Yu?" she asks, something bitter and fierce in her voice.  
  
He lays one large hand on her shoulder, acutely aware of how small she is, yet how tough she lies beneath his fingertips. Before, he had thought that he might crush her with a touch, but he knows well enough now that such would be impossible.  
  
"You have proven yourself better than them," he replies.  
  
Even he is surprised by the honesty of his words. Mulan turns to face him, curiosity colouring her features, and he cannot but admire the fire in her eyes, the set of her jaw. Impulsively he wraps one hand around her slender waist and pulls her to him, crushing her into a kiss. She does not pull away, or wilt beneath him; she struggles in return, forces her tongue into his mouth, and he feels her hands tightening in the fur of his jacket. How long they stand battling without moving he is not sure, but when they pull apart she is panting and flushed, and his fingers are pressing into her flesh.  
  
"We were to ride on tonight," says Shan Yu.  
  
"China will still be rotten and ready to fall when the sun rises," Mulan replies. She raises one hand, warm through its leather glove, to stroke the cold skin of his cheek. "Let the men have their celebrations. And let us have ours."  
  
A smile spreads across his face, slow and coming from somewhere deep within. He can already imagine her on the Empress's throne.  
  
"Indeed. What is one night when we have waited so long for China to fall?"  
  
She laughs, and slips away from him back towards the campsite. He can hear the sounds of drumming and of warrior's songs as he turns, one more time, to look towards China and its firelight in the distance. It is another day's ride yet, but after all this time it will indeed cost little more to delay a few hours longer. The thought strikes him of China's reaction to this foreign warrior queen, and then it is his turn to laugh, cold but well-felt, as he remembers the look of shock that they Chinese soldiers they had captured had worn.  
  
"One night is good enough," he murmurs to himself, and turned as well back towards the camp.


End file.
